Friday, February 29, 2008

These snorkels better come in handy...

So we have decided to get off Isla Mujeres and move to another island...Right now we are in Cozumel, we got here a few hours ago. Isla Mujeres was a great little beach island, but after a day of not so great weather there is not much to do there. Forget about trying to go for another bike ride in those high winds...But I must say, the color of the ocean water around Isla Mujeres is so beautiful! It is this clear turqouise that you can see right down to the the bottom through. Then you see the gradients of every color ocean blue you can imagine, it's so pretty. I haven't seen water this beautiful in a long time....
We had minor holdup that made us stay in Cancun for one night, last night. We actually stayed at the same hostel that we first stayed in, so the familiar surroundings were nice. I was supposed to be having a Citibank ATM card mailed to me from the US. There was a debacle in getting it to me on time before we left, so this was the only solution. Sketchy, huh? It was sort of difficult to figure out where to send it, but we decided on Cancun, a bigger city that we thought may be the easiest and safest place to send it...After getting an address of where the Citibank branch was, I set off in a taxi to find it, while Adrian waited at the internet place with all our stuff. It wasn't a good start when the cab driver just drove me around in a circle and dropped me off at a completely different bank, one where I could've just walked to! I was starting to notice there were no Citibanks....I first tried Scotia bank....Then BanaMex, which I realized is the Mexican Citibank. The problem was, after trying several branches of Banamex, none of the addresses matched the one I was supposed to find, but I was in the right area. I was basically running back and forth for 2 hours, with several people just sending me every which way, thinking more and more that there was no way I would get this card. I went back to find Adrian, and since it was nearing closing time for the banks, our only option was to stay overnight and look in the morning. After checking into the hostel, we went looking for it again, and Adrian's expert Spanish helped us realize that the bank at that address did not exist anymore!! It was now a hardware store....Oh crap! We retired from our search, yet later when I check the UPS tracking, found that it was delivered somewhere, but we had no idea, to some guy name Javie at some unfamiliar address . So first thing this morning we went back to the main BanaMex branch with this information, one that I had already been to, and the nice bank lady said "Oh, I know him, he works right upstairs." Could this really be this easy now, after all my retarded searching yesterday?
Bingo! It was finally delivered to this office, and a receptionist signed for it. At 9.30, I had my card, much to my disbelief! And just to make sure it worked, I promptly got some money out of the ATM with it...geez, I think I am starting to babble on like Adrian in his journals...
Before leaving Cancun this morning, I bought some snorkels for us at Walmart, thinking that they would be useful to us in the next couple of weeks, and then we won't have to rent them anywhere. I hopped on the bus to Walmart, and picked up a pair cheaper then we would find them at any beach town. Last night I had already gone to Walmart on the bus, but I couldn't find the return bus and resorted to taking a taxi back to the hostel. I am excited to say that I found the return bus this morning, only costing 80 cents for the round trip instead of the two dollar taxi...I think yesterday's bus driver just went the wrong route, because it turns out I was just waiting on the wrong side of the Walmart for a bus that wouldn't go by there...Well, that seems to be all the excitement for now. Tomorrow we are planning on putting those new snorkels to use here in Cozumel. We are meeting up with a friend of Adrian's who is stopping here on a cruise and will snorkel with him and friends...

1 comment:

Stacey said...

Walmart in Cancun, what is this world coming to???? Glad you got your ATM card, that's a crazy story. Went to see Jessie and the kids, Gavin looks so different from when I saw him a month or so ago. Anyways, miss ya and glad you are having a good time.
Stacey